Prison Term Given In Drug Case

August 10, 1989

ISLE OF WIGHT — A 46-year-old Smithfield man was ordered to spend nine years in state prison on cocaine and firearms charges in Circuit Court on Wednesday.

Stanley Junious Saunders of the 100 block of Windsor Avenue was arrested in June 1988 after a police search of his home turned up 3.3 grams of cocaine, $8,000 and a pistol hidden in the headboard of a bed.

In March Saunders was convicted of distributing cocaine and possession of a firearm and drugs. On Wednesday, Judge E. Everett Bagnell sentenced Saunders to 20 years on the cocaine charge, with 13 years suspended, and five years on the firearms charge, with three years suspended.

Bagnell said the materials collected at the time of the arrest showed that Saunders was selling cocaine for his own benefit.

"All the evidence in this case indicates this was more than a teen-ager distributing drugs for someone else," Bagnell said.

In other cases in Circuit Court:

*Rodney Warren, 24, of the first block of Pagan Avenue in Smithfield, pleaded guilty to three counts of selling cocaine. One of the cases arises from July 1988. The other two cases were the result of sales to undercover police officers in January 1988.

*Bruce Sherwood Wilkins, 31, of the 500 block of West Main Street in Smithfield, pleaded guilty to two counts of selling cocaine.

Wilkins twice sold cocaine to an undercover officer in January.

*George Wayne Diggs, 31, of the 400 block of East Street, Smithfield, pleaded guilty to three counts of selling cocaine and two counts of accommodation sales of cocaine - charges used when the defendant didn't profit from the sale.

On four different occasions early this year, Diggs sold cocaine to undercover officers or helped them find cocaine.

Warren, Diggs and Wilkins will be sentenced after background reports are completed.